USERS of Jalan Tanjung in Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya, are getting frustrated about the worsening traffic situation in the area.

About 30 residents from Tropicana, Riana Green condominium and the surrounding areas held a press conference at the Riana Green function room to highlight their plight.

“The state government had made an announcement in December to acquire the land belonging to BUCC (Bandar Utama City Corporation) and to widen the road but right now, nothing has been done,” said Action Group Against Closure of Jalan Tanjung Bandar Utama chairman Mohamed Shukri Zain.

He said the traffic had worsened since school reopened and it took at least 20 to 30 minutes just to get onto the Sprint highway from Jalan Tanjung.

“The other alternative is through the tunnel in Persiaran Tropicana and that is also jammed as traffic gets backed up at the BU11 and BU12 area in Lebuh Bandar Utama,” he said.

Residents had brought up the matter to the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) and had requested for the timing of the traffic lights to be changed but all to no avail.

Shukri also said it was not right for BUCC to place barriers and speed bumps in front of the 1 Tech Park because it was out of the boundaries of its private land.

“They have reduced the road to only one way going out and the guards would stop the traffic to give priority to cars going into and out of the 1 Tech Park and this slows down traffic,” said Shukri.

Cita Damansara Condominium joint management body committee member Kenneth Tan said the whole issue had created an “us against them” border mentality between Bandar Utama and Tropicana.

“It shouldn’t be the case because many of us use the road to go to Bandar Utama,” said Tan.

SJK(C) Damansara board chairman Michael Tang said most cars using the road in the morning were heading towards the highway.

“The shopping centres in Bandar Utama are not open until 10am so how can they say that we are bringing congestion into their neighbourhood?” asked Tang.

Shukri said they just wanted answers as to when the road would be opened and the current status of the land acquisition.

“We are pleading with the state government to speed up the process so that we don’t have to suffer anymore,” said Shukri.

Riana Green joint management body committee member Kong Chock Heng said they had earlier received a letter from the Land Office to attend a meeting because some portions of their land was required for the road expansion.

“However, the meeting was later called off because of some legal matters,” said Kong.

Riana Green resident Udo Kraus, who is a retired mechanical engineer, conducted a study on the time and resources wasted by fellow residents since the road was closed.

“We now have to travel an extra 4.5km distance when using the Persiaran Tropicana or an extra 6km using the Kota Damansara way,” said Kraus.

He said this took a lot of time and fuel wasted for residents of the 1,200-odd units since the road was closed in November.

When contacted, BUCC general affairs manager Paul Fernandez said they had already received the acquisition order from the Land Office but they had also obtained an order from the court to put everything on hold until the case management and hearing of their pending case has taken place.

“We can’t go against the land acquisition order and we are just asking for it to be put on hold until the court has listened to all parties involved,” said Fernandez.

Regarding the barriers in front of 1 Tech Park, he said BUCC had to put in place a traffic management system for the office tenants and the guards were put there to manage traffic.